Tuners 5 and 6 Not Authorized

Well at 1:30am Cablevision finally updated cable card firmware, I am back to 6 tuners, and all is good with the world. Thank you TiVo Margret and thank you Cablevision. Hope the rest of you guys get it all sorted out ASAP. Truly feel your pain and hoping CABLEVISION and TiVo will get this solved soon.

I have not seen to much mention on Comcast in this thread. Does Comcast have the same problem with its cable cards and the full six tuner usage?

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Yes Comcast has problems. The word is Comcast should be updating cable cards by the end of October. I have not seen anything posted her about Tivo working with Comcast like they are with other cable companies. I could be wrong but I have not seen anything.

Sorry to hear that. I'm thinking it has something to do with analog channel simulcast and a glitch with how it tells the unit to tune to which channel, and it's mistaking something and trying to tune the analog channel instead, causing the black screen error because Roamio is digital only.

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It is plausible and matches up with what I remember in terms of problems tuning HD digital channels that still have SD versions in my cable lineup. I cannot verify that right away though. Question is, is anybody looking into this as a separate problem? I am replying here in the hopes it will get some attention, but I will be away until Sunday and unable to actually call into Tivo support to open a case with them directly. I think this problem is separate from the one in this thread and might be getting lost in the noise created by multiple new release bugs.

Yes Comcast has problems. The word is Comcast should be updating cable cards by the end of October ...

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I have Comcast, and all six of my tuners appear to be working fine. I am using a very old Motorola M-card that I removed from one of my S3s. Does the problem only affect newer cablecards, or is it limited to certain markets?

I have Comcast, and all six of my tuners appear to be working fine. I am using a very old Motorola M-card that I removed from one of my S3s. Does the problem only affect newer cablecards, or is it limited to certain markets?

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It seems to be limited to certain markets. Several people have reported no issues with an old PKM800 card running 1.5.2_3001 on Comcast. However, I've tried two PKM800 cable cards with that firmware version in two separate Roamio Pros and both only let me use 5 tuners. Maybe it has to do with the headend equipment. Don't know what else it could be.

I have Comcast, and all six of my tuners appear to be working fine. I am using a very old Motorola M-card that I removed from one of my S3s. Does the problem only affect newer cablecards, or is it limited to certain markets?

It seems to be limited to certain markets. Several people have reported no issues with an old PKM800 card running 1.5.2_3001 on Comcast. However, I've tried two PKM800 cable cards with that firmware version in two separate Roamio Pros and both only let me use 5 tuners. Maybe it has to do with the headend equipment. Don't know what else it could be.

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gweempose, you are using a motorola card. While there are some issues with the Moto cards, mostly we are talking about Cisco/SA cards here since they are more problemmatic. generaltso is referencing cisco cards.

It seems to be limited to certain markets. Several people have reported no issues with an old PKM800 card running 1.5.2_3001 on Comcast. However, I've tried two PKM800 cable cards with that firmware version in two separate Roamio Pros and both only let me use 5 tuners. Maybe it has to do with the headend equipment. Don't know what else it could be.

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I have the latest firmware with the Cisco(SA) PKM800 card. Tuners 5 and 6 are wonky (tuners 5 and 6 will work after a reboot, but then tuner 6 stops being able to decrypt all non-broadcast channels while tuner 5 seems to lose the ability to decrypt *some* - not all - non-broadcast channels).

I've heard that PKM803 cards with the latest firmware might work but I don't feel like making a special trip down to the Comcast office to have them look at me weird when I specifically ask for PKM803 cablecards (even if they have them).

I don't *need* 6 tuners right now so I'm ok with dropping down to 4 tuners. Of course if this problem lasts more than a few months, then I'm going to start to care. Hopefully my patience will be rewarded.

I've been considering Roamio to replace an older version 3 TIVO. I'm in Houston on Comcast with a Cisco 800 card with the .3001 firmware. Sounds like the best I can hope for is 5 tuners operational for the time being. Does the unit perform reliably in that mode and record/playback dependably at this point?

I've been considering Roamio to replace an older version 3 TIVO. I'm in Houston on Comcast with a Cisco 800 card with the .3001 firmware. Sounds like the best I can hope for is 5 tuners operational for the time being. Does the unit perform reliably in that mode and record/playback dependably at this point?

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You might be fine. Plenty of people seem to be running that combination with all 6 tuners working fine. Mine only works with 5, but it's perfectly reliable with 5.

I'd like to say yes with 5 tuners but I missed 3 premiers last Monday due to a tuner getting a black screen. It's the only time it's happened since I got it when it first went on sale and it hasn't happened since.

I was able to secure a 514517-017-00 today. Will report if it works on Friday when I get everything set up. Thanks again for the help.

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Received my Plus today. Got everything set up and activated. It appears all 6 tuners will receive programming, however none of them will tune to what appears to be the encrypted channels. I had the local cable company (Midcontinent Communications) send a couple of different signals but so far it is not working.
514517-017-00
I have a Motorola card FW*06.25

Received my Plus today. Got everything set up and activated. It appears all 6 tuners will receive programming, however none of them will tune to what appears to be the encrypted channels. I had the local cable company (Midcontinent Communications) send a couple of different signals but so far it is not working.
514517-017-00
I have a Motorola card FW*06.25

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You should check CableCard->Conditional Access screen to see if your CableCard is properly paired. You should see a "V" after Val for properly paired CableCard.
EXAMPLES:

Set up my Plus yesterday. After the updates, called the Comcast Cable Card line and actually got a lady that knew what she was doing. Took longer to verify my account than it did to pair the card I took from my TV. Immediately paired and I started recording 6 Premium channels. All worked fine so far. Card firmware is SA 3001. Also stuck in a 2 TB WD 20EARS drive without a problem.

Sorry to hear that. I'm thinking it has something to do with analog channel simulcast and a glitch with how it tells the unit to tune to which channel, and it's mistaking something and trying to tune the analog channel instead, causing the black screen error because Roamio is digital only.

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I think I'm onto something with the quoted statement above. I set my Roamio to record 5 SDV channels, then started surfing with the 6th. All channels tuned well until I got to CNN HD again. (Ch 1113 here). I channeled up and down and each adjacent channel tuned perfectly, but CNN HD never tuned when I went back to it. Then I remembered I said the above regarding analog channels so I looked in my channel guide brochure I got from oceanic TWC I found that ch 14 is CNN on their analog tier (but its an on demand channel in their digital tier), so I tuned to ch 14 and of course get a message saying the TA doesn't support this channel (because its on demand), so I immediately tune back to ch 1113 CNN HD and what do you know, it tunes in! So I channel down to 1111 and that tunes well. Then I channel back up to 1113 CNN HD and no dice.....hmmmmmm. I keep tuning up, down etc and still nothing. I tune back to ch 14 and then back to 1113 and voila, it tunes again! I'm seeing a pattern here. Then I look and see that the CNN SD digital channel is ch 113, so I do the same experiment using that instead of ch 14 and wouldn't ya know, that works to tune channel 1113 as well, ......huh?!?!? Wow startling evidence that it indeed does have to do with analog and SD digital simulcasts of channels. When I tune to ANY other channel except the analog and digital SD versions of the same HD channel, like CNN HD, then it won't tune. (Remember this is all while recording on the other 5 tuners).

I think the key thing that may be tripping up Roamio is the fact that on the analog tier ch 14 is CNN, but on digital it's an on demand channel. When I use the HDHomerun Prime it lists both channels in the channel list. Not so with Roamio. Me thinks TiVo needs to maybe send a different guide to their digital only roamios. I think this is why, when I look at the DVR diagnostics screen, it ALWAYS shows the mis-tuned channel as an analog one!

Then I look and see that the CNN SD digital channel is ch 113, so I do the same experiment using that instead of ch 14 and wouldn't ya know, that works to tune channel 1113 as well, ......huh?!?!? Wow startling evidence that it indeed does have to do with analog and SD digital simulcasts of channels. When I tune to ANY other channel except the analog and digital SD versions of the same HD channel, like CNN HD, then it won't tune. (Remember this is all while recording on the other 5 tuners).

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Do you have 113 and 14 in your channel list? If so, try removing them to only keep the HD version. Then probably reboot the TA, maybe the Roamio too. Can you now to to the hd version without any "special tricks"?

Do you know if your TWC does some work on their end that when you use their boxes that if you tune to 113 and have an HD box that instead it really shows the feed from 1113 (hd) even though you are tuned into the sd channel number? If so, maybe that is part of the problem and they could disable that 'feature' for your registered devices?

I think I'm onto something with the quoted statement above. I set my Roamio to record 5 SDV channels, then started surfing with the 6th. All channels tuned well until I got to CNN HD again. (Ch 1113 here). I channeled up and down and each adjacent channel tuned perfectly, but CNN HD never tuned when I went back to it. Then I remembered I said the above regarding analog channels so I looked in my channel guide brochure I got from oceanic TWC I found that ch 14 is CNN on their analog tier (but its an on demand channel in their digital tier), so I tuned to ch 14 and of course get a message saying the TA doesn't support this channel (because its on demand), so I immediately tune back to ch 1113 CNN HD and what do you know, it tunes in! So I channel down to 1111 and that tunes well. Then I channel back up to 1113 CNN HD and no dice.....hmmmmmm. I keep tuning up, down etc and still nothing. I tune back to ch 14 and then back to 1113 and voila, it tunes again! I'm seeing a pattern here. Then I look and see that the CNN SD digital channel is ch 113, so I do the same experiment using that instead of ch 14 and wouldn't ya know, that works to tune channel 1113 as well, ......huh?!?!? Wow startling evidence that it indeed does have to do with analog and SD digital simulcasts of channels. When I tune to ANY other channel except the analog and digital SD versions of the same HD channel, like CNN HD, then it won't tune. (Remember this is all while recording on the other 5 tuners).

I think the key thing that may be tripping up Roamio is the fact that on the analog tier ch 14 is CNN, but on digital it's an on demand channel. When I use the HDHomerun Prime it lists both channels in the channel list. Not so with Roamio. Me thinks TiVo needs to maybe send a different guide to their digital only roamios. I think this is why, when I look at the DVR diagnostics screen, it ALWAYS shows the mis-tuned channel as an analog one!

What say you, TiVo?

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This is really interesting.

I've been getting the black screen on about 50% of my HD tunes today. So I start recording on 5-tuners and start surfing with the up/down channel button. Now all channels tune perfectly! I search for 30-minutes and couldn't find a bad one! When I tune to channels in the analog band, the tuner I'm surfing on says they're QAM-256 channels. Not analog? Is this normal?

Also, I've noticed that when the Pro is unable to tune, my Mini works perfectly! Could the Mini be pulling a different channel list?

Do you have 113 and 14 in your channel list? If so, try removing them to only keep the HD version. Then probably reboot the TA, maybe the Roamio too. Can you now to to the hd version without any "special tricks"?

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No I removed those long ago. They're still in the list when I go into the channel list menu, but unchecked of course. What I'm saying is don't even make them available at all and maybe that'll fix it.

Do you know if your TWC does some work on their end that when you use their boxes that if you tune to 113 and have an HD box that instead it really shows the feed from 1113 (hd) even though you are tuned into the sd channel number? If so, maybe that is part of the problem and they could disable that 'feature' for your registered devices?

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I've heard of them doing that in twc areas and i remember asking the counter csr when I picked up the second ta and cc. She said they hoped to do it in this area soon. I took that with a grain of salt and I have no clue if they actually do or will ever do it here. I have never had nor will ever have one of their boxes.

I've been getting the black screen on about 50% of my HD tunes today. So I start recording on 5-tuners and start surfing with the up/down channel button. Now all channels tune perfectly! I search for 30-minutes and couldn't find a bad one! When I tune to channels in the analog band, the tuner I'm surfing on says they're QAM-256 channels. Not analog? Is this normal?

Also, I've noticed that when the Pro is unable to tune, my Mini works perfectly! Could the Mini be pulling a different channel list?

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Yes that's normal and is the auto tune simulcast I'm talking about. My Roamio automatically tunes to the sd digital version of the channel when I select the analog channel version (ch3 local analog fox and ch83 digital fox, ch 1003 HD Fox). That's the issue that I think is causing the bad tunes on the HD versions somehow.